1.
Lituus (mathematics)
–
In mathematics, a lituus is a spiral with polar equation r 2 θ = k where k is any non-zero constant. Thus, the angle θ is inversely proportional to the square of the radius r and this spiral, which has two branches depending on the sign of r, is asymptotic to the x axis. Its points of inflexion are at = and, the curve was named for the ancient Roman lituus by Roger Cotes in a collection of papers entitled Harmonia Mensurarum, which was published six years after his death. Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. Lituus, Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer, ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4 Weisstein, interactive example using JSXGraph OConnor, John J. Robertson, Edmund F. Lituus, MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews
Lituus (mathematics)
–
Branch for positive r
2.
Patera
–
In the material culture of classical antiquity, a phiale or patera is a shallow ceramic or metal libation bowl. It often has an indentation in the center underside to facilitate holding it. It typically has no handles, and no feet, although the two terms may be used interchangeably, particularly in the context of Etruscan culture, phiale is more common in reference to Greek forms, and patera in a Roman setting. Libation was a central and vital aspect of ancient Greek religion and it is one of the basic religious acts that define piety in ancient Greece, dating back to the Bronze Age and even prehistoric Greece. Libations were a part of life, and the pious might perform them every day in the morning and evening. A libation most often consisted of mixed wine and water, but could also be unmixed wine, honey, oil, water, the form of libation called spondē is typically the ritualized pouring of wine from a jug or bowl held in the hand. The most common ritual was to pour the liquid from an oinochoē into a phiale, the Greeks stood when they prayed, either with their arms uplifted, or in the act of libation with the right arm extended to hold the phiale. After the wine offering was poured from the phiale, the remainder of the contents was drunk by the celebrant, in Roman art, the libation is shown performed at an altar, mensa, or tripod. It was the simplest form of sacrifice, and could be a sufficient offering by itself, the introductory rite to an animal sacrifice included an incense and wine libation onto a burning altar. Both emperors and divinities are frequently depicted, especially on coins, scenes of libation and the patera itself commonly signify the quality of pietas, religious duty or reverence. In architecture, oval features on plaster friezes on buildings may be called paterae, parabiago patera, which is actually a platter or plate
Patera
–
Silver phiale (620-590 BC, from
Bayindir village,
Elmali, present-day Turkey
Patera
Patera
–
Octopus and dolphin motifs on a ceramic phiale (510–500 BC, from
Eretria,
Euboea)
Patera
–
Golden phiale (4th–3rd century BC)
3.
Pietas (virtue)
–
Pietas, translated variously as duty, religiosity or religious behavior, loyalty, devotion, or filial piety, was one of the chief virtues among the ancient Romans. It was the distinguishing virtue of the founding hero Aeneas, who is given the adjectival epithet pius throughout Virgils epic Aeneid. The sacred nature of pietas was embodied by the divine personification Pietas, cicero defined pietas as the virtue which admonishes us to do our duty to our country or our parents or other blood relations. The man who possessed pietas performed all his duties towards the deity and his fellow human beings fully and in every respect, Pietas erga parentes was one of the most important aspects of demonstrating virtue. Pietas extended also toward parents in the sense of ancestors, and was one of the principles of Roman tradition. Pietas as a virtue resided within a person, in contrast to a virtue or gift such as Victoria, Pietas, however, allowed a person to recognize the divine source of benefits conferred. The first recorded use of pietas in English occurs in Anselm Bayly’s The Alliance of Music, Poetry, Pietas can also be arranged in this order from the most important to the least, The gods, your city, your family, and lastly yourself. You should also take in mind that pietas includes knowing your place in this scale, Pietas was represented on coin by cult objects, but also as a woman conducting a sacrifice by means of fire at an altar. In the imagery of sacrifice, libation was the act that came to symbolize pietas. Pietas is first represented on Roman coins on denarii issued by Marcus Herennius in 108 or 107 BC, Pietas appears on the obverse as a divine personification, in bust form, the quality of pietas is represented by a son carrying his father on his back. Pietas is among the virtues that appear frequently on Imperial coins, one of the symbols of pietas was the stork, described by Petronius as pietaticultrix, cultivator of pietas. The stork represented filial piety in particular, as the Romans believed that it demonstrated family loyalty by returning to the same nest every year, as such, a stork appears next to Pietas on a coin issued by Metellus Pius. Pietas was the presence in everyday life that cautioned humans not to intrude on the realm of the gods. Violations of pietas required a piaculum, expiatory rites, a temple to Pietas was vowed by Manius Acilius Glabrio at the Battle of Thermopylae in 191 BC. According to a legend, a poor woman who was starving in prison was saved when her daughter gave her breast milk. Caught in the act, the daughter was not punished, mother and daughter were set free, and given public support for the rest of their lives. The site was regarded as sacred to the goddess Pietas because she had chosen to manifest her presence there, the story exemplified pietas erga parentes, the proper devotion one ought to show to ones parents. Pietas was often depicted as goddess on the reverse of Roman Imperial coins, with women of the family on the obverse
Pietas (virtue)
–
Pietas, as a virtue of the emperor
Antoninus Pius, represented by a woman offering a sacrifice on the reverse of this
sestertius
Pietas (virtue)
–
Denarius of Herennius, depicting Pietas and an act of pietas.
Pietas (virtue)
–
Flavia Maximiana Theodora on the obverse, on the reverse Pietas holding infant to her breast.
Pietas (virtue)
–
Livia as Pietas
4.
Roman Emperor
–
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period. The emperors used a variety of different titles throughout history, often when a given Roman is described as becoming emperor in English, it reflects his taking of the title Augustus or Caesar. Another title often used was imperator, originally a military honorific, early Emperors also used the title princeps. Emperors frequently amassed republican titles, notably Princeps Senatus, Consul, the first emperors reigned alone, later emperors would sometimes rule with co-Emperors and divide administration of the Empire between them. The Romans considered the office of emperor to be distinct from that of a king, the first emperor, Augustus, resolutely refused recognition as a monarch. Although Augustus could claim that his power was authentically republican, his successor, Tiberius, nonetheless, for the first three hundred years of Roman Emperors, from Augustus until Diocletian, a great effort was made to emphasize that the Emperors were the leaders of a Republic. Elements of the Republican institutional framework were preserved until the end of the Western Empire. The Eastern emperors ultimately adopted the title of Basileus, which had meant king in Greek, but became a title reserved solely for the Roman emperor, other kings were then referred to as rēgas. In addition to their office, some emperors were given divine status after death. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the late 5th century, Romulus Augustulus is often considered to be the last emperor of the west after his forced abdication in 476, although Julius Nepos maintained a claim to the title until his death in 480. Constantine XI was the last Byzantine Roman emperor in Constantinople, dying in the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, a Byzantine group of claimant Roman Emperors existed in the Empire of Trebizond until its conquest by the Ottomans in 1461. In western Europe the title of Roman Emperor was revived by Germanic rulers, the Holy Roman Emperors, in 800, at the end of the Roman Republic no new, and certainly no single, title indicated the individual who held supreme power. Insofar as emperor could be seen as the English translation of imperator, then Julius Caesar had been an emperor, however, Julius Caesar, unlike those after him, did so without the Senates vote and approval. Julius Caesar held the Republican offices of four times and dictator five times, was appointed dictator in perpetuity in 45 BC and had been pontifex maximus for a long period. He gained these positions by senatorial consent, by the time of his assassination, he was the most powerful man in the Roman world. In his will, Caesar appointed his adopted son Octavian as his heir, a decade after Caesars death, Octavians victory over his erstwhile ally Mark Antony at Actium put an end to any effective opposition and confirmed Octavians supremacy. His restoration of powers to the Senate and the people of Rome was a demonstration of his auctoritas, some later historians such as Tacitus would say that even at Augustus death, the true restoration of the Republic might have been possible. Instead, Augustus actively prepared his adopted son Tiberius to be his successor, the Senate disputed the issue but eventually confirmed Tiberius as princeps
Roman Emperor
–
Augustus
Roman Emperor
–
Vexillum
Roman Emperor
–
Statue of
Augustus, c. 30 BC–20 BC; this statue is located in the
Louvre
Roman Emperor
–
Imaginary portrait of
Constantine XI, the last Roman emperor
5.
Herennius Etruscus
–
Herennius Etruscus, was Roman emperor in 251, in a joint rule with his father Decius. Emperor Hostilian was his younger brother, Herennius was born in or near Sirmium in Pannonia, during one of his fathers military postings. His mother was Herennia Cupressenia Etruscilla, a Roman lady of an important senatorial family. Herennius was very close to his father and accompanied him in 248, as a military tribune, Decius was successful in defeating this usurper and felt confident to begin a rebellion of his own in the following year. Acclaimed emperor by his own troops, Decius marched into Italy, in Rome, Herennius was declared heir to the throne and received the title of princeps iuventutis. From the beginning of Herennius accession, Gothic tribes raided across the Danube frontier, at the beginning of 251, Decius elevated Herennius to the title of Augustus making him his co-emperor. Moreover, Herennius was chosen to be one of the years consuls, the father and son, now joint rulers, then embarked in an expedition against king Cniva of the Goths to punish the invaders for the raids. Hostilian remained in Rome and the empress Herennia Etruscilla was named regent, Cniva and his men were returning to their lands with the booty, when the Roman army encountered them. Showing a very sophisticated military tactic, Cniva divided his army in smaller, more manageable groups, sometime during the first two weeks of June, both armies engaged in the battle of Abrittus. Herennius died in battle, struck by an enemy arrow, Decius survived the initial confrontation, only to be slain with the rest of the army before the end of the day. Herennius and Decius were the first two emperors to be killed by an army in battle. With the news of the death of the emperors, the army proclaimed Trebonianus Gallus emperor, but in Rome they were succeeded by Hostilian, media related to Herennius Etruscus at Wikimedia Commons
Herennius Etruscus
–
Herennius Etruscus as
Caesar, celebrating his
Pietas with its typical cult instruments.
6.
Latin
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
Latin
–
Latin inscription, in the
Colosseum
Latin
–
Julius Caesar 's
Commentarii de Bello Gallico is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this
patrician general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the floruit of the
Roman republic.
Latin
–
A multi-volume Latin dictionary in the
University Library of Graz
Latin
–
Latin and Ancient Greek Language - Culture - Linguistics at
Duke University in 2014.
7.
Crosier
–
A crosier is a stylized staff carried by high-ranking Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, and some Lutheran, United Methodist and Pentecostal prelates. Other typical insignia of many of these prelates are the mitre, the cross. A crosier staff is a part of the tradition of Jewish Christianity, the staff is first mentioned in the Book of Exodus, when God appears to Moses in the burning bush. God asks what Moses has in his hand, and Moses answers a staff, the staff is miraculously transformed into a snake and then back into a staff. The staff is thereafter referred to as the rod of God or staff of God, and thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. And the LORD said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt, and Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the rod of God in his hand. Moses and Aaron appear before the pharaoh when Aarons rod is transformed into a serpent, the pharaohs sorcerers are also able to transform their own rods into serpents, but Aarons swallows them. Aarons rod is used to turn the Nile blood-red. It is used several times on Gods command to initiate the plagues of Egypt, during the Exodus, Moses stretches out his hand with the staff to part the Red Sea. While in the wilderness after leaving Egypt Moses follows Gods command to strike a rock with the rod to create a spring for the Israelites to drink from, but Moses strikes the rock twice with the staff when the water does not immediately appear after the first strike. For striking the rock twice, implying lack of faith, God punished Moses by not letting him enter into the Promised Land, finally, Moses uses the staff in the battle at Rephidim between the Israelites and the Amalekites. When he holds up the rod of God the Israelites prevail, Aaron and Hur help him to keep the staff raised until victory is achieved. The crosier is the symbol of the office of a bishop or Apostle. In Western Christianity, the crosier is shaped like a shepherds crook and it adds that, when several bishops join in a single celebration, only the one presiding uses a crosier. A bishop usually holds his crosier with his hand, leaving his right hand free to bestow blessings. The Caeremoniale Episcoporum states that the bishop holds the crosier with the side of the crook forward. Another altar server, likewise wearing a vimpa, holds the mitre when the bishop is not wearing it, in the Anglican tradition, the crosier may be carried by someone else walking before the bishop in a procession
Crosier
–
Western crosier of Archbishop Heinrich of
Finstingen, 1260–1286
Crosier
–
Crosier ~ 1220/30, treasury of the former Premonstratensian
Rüti Abbey in Switzerland
Crosier
–
Eastern Orthodox tau-shaped crosier belonging to St.
Dimitry of Rostov (
Rostov museum)
Crosier
–
Russian Orthodox bishop's crosier, 16th century
8.
Ancient Roman religion
–
The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, and attributed their success as a world power to their collective piety in maintaining good relations with the gods. According to legends, most of Romes religious institutions could be traced to its founders, particularly Numa Pompilius, the Sabine second king of Rome, who negotiated directly with the gods. This archaic religion was the foundation of the mos maiorum, the way of the ancestors or simply tradition, as Rome came into contact with foreign cultures, and conquered them, foreign religions increasingly attracted devotees among Romans, who increasingly had ancestry from elsewhere in the Empire. The emperors promoted the Imperial cult around the empire, and this, ultimately, Roman polytheism was brought to an end with the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the empire. The priesthoods of public religion were held by members of the elite classes, there was no principle analogous to separation of church and state in ancient Rome. During the Roman Republic, the men who were elected public officials might also serve as augurs. Priests married, raised families, and led politically active lives, Julius Caesar became pontifex maximus before he was elected consul. The augurs read the will of the gods and supervised the marking of boundaries as a reflection of universal order, Roman religion was thus practical and contractual, based on the principle of do ut des, I give that you might give. Even the most skeptical among Romes intellectual elite such as Cicero, for ordinary Romans, religion was a part of daily life. Each home had a shrine at which prayers and libations to the familys domestic deities were offered. Neighborhood shrines and sacred such as springs and groves dotted the city. The Roman calendar was structured around religious observances, women, slaves, and children all participated in a range of religious activities. The Romans are known for the number of deities they honored. The Romans looked for common ground between their major gods and those of the Greeks, adapting Greek myths and iconography for Latin literature, etruscan religion was also a major influence, particularly on the practice of augury. The mysteries, however, involved exclusive oaths and secrecy, conditions that conservative Romans viewed with suspicion as characteristic of magic, conspiratorial, or subversive activity. Sporadic and sometimes brutal attempts were made to suppress religionists who seemed to threaten traditional morality and unity, one way that Rome incorporated diverse peoples was by supporting their religious heritage, building temples to local deities that framed their theology within the hierarchy of Roman religion. Inscriptions throughout the Empire record the worship of local and Roman deities. Because Romans had never been obligated to one god or one cult only
Ancient Roman religion
–
Marcus Aurelius (
head covered) sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Ancient Roman religion
–
Relief panel from an altar to
Venus and
Mars depicting Romulus and Remus suckling the she-wolf, and gods representing Roman topography such as the
Tiber river and
Palatine Hill
Ancient Roman religion
–
Aeneas urged by the Penates to continue his journey to found Rome (4th century AD illustration)
Ancient Roman religion
–
Twelve principal deities (
Di Consentes) corresponding to those honored at the
lectisternium of 217 BC, represented on a 1st-century altar from
Gabii that is rimmed by the
zodiac
9.
Augur
–
The augur was a priest and official in the classical Roman world. This was known as taking the auspices, the ceremony and function of the augur was central to any major undertaking in Roman society—public or private—including matters of war, commerce, and religion. Roman augurs were part of a college of priests who shared the duties and responsibilities of the position, at the foundation of the Republic in 510 BC, the patricians held sole claim to this office, by 300 BC, the office was open to plebeian occupation as well. Senior members of the collegium put forth nominations for any vacancies, in the Regal period tradition holds that there were three augurs at a time, by the time of Sulla, they had reached fifteen in number. Augury sought the divine will regarding any proposed course of action which might affect Romes pax, fortuna, political, military and civil actions were sanctioned by augury, historically performed by priests of the college of augurs and by haruspices on behalf of senior magistrates. The presiding magistrate at an augural rite thus held the “right of augury”, magistracies were therefore religious offices in their own right, and magistrates were directly responsible for the pax, fortuna and salus of Rome and everything that was Roman. The effectiveness of augury could only be judged retrospectively, the divinely ordained condition of peace was an outcome of successful augury and those whose actions had led to divine wrath could not have possessed a true right of augury. Of all the protagonists in the Civil War, only Octavian could have possessed it, lucan, writing during the Principate, described the recent Civil War as unnatural - a mirror to supernatural disturbances in the greater cosmos. His imagery is apt to the principles of augury and its broader interpretation by Stoic apologists of the Imperial cult. In the Stoic cosmology, pax deorum is the expression of natural order in human affairs, according to Cicero, the auctoritas of ius augurum included the right to adjourn and overturn the process of law, consular election could be - and was - rendered invalid by inaugural error. For Cicero, this made the augur the most powerful authority in the Republic, Cicero himself was co-opted into the college only late in his career. In the later Republic, augury came under the supervision of the college of pontifices, the office of pontifex maximus eventually became a de facto consular prerogative. In ancient Rome the auguria were considered to be in equilibrium with the sacra and were not the way by which the gods made their will known. The augures publici concerned themselves only with related to the state. The jus augurale was rigorously secret, therefore very little about the aspects of ceremonies. We have only the names of some auguria, e. g, the first one required the sacrifice of red dogs and took place before wheat grains were shelled but not before they had formed. Of the second we know only the name implies a ritual related to the harvest. Augurium and auspicium are terms used indifferently by the ancient, modern scholars have debated the issue at length but have failed to find a distinctive definition that may hold for all the known cases
Augur
–
Flamen (250–260 AD)
Augur
–
An augur holding a
lituus, the curved wand often used as a symbol of augury on Roman coins
10.
Templum
–
The vocabulary of ancient Roman religion was highly specialized. Its study affords important information about the religion, traditions and beliefs of the ancient Romans and this legacy is conspicuous in European cultural history in its influence on later juridical and religious vocabulary in Europe, particularly of the Western Church. For theonyms, or the names and epithets of gods, see List of Roman deities, for public religious holidays, see Roman festivals. For temples see the List of Ancient Roman temples, individual landmarks of religious topography in ancient Rome are not included in this list, see Roman temple. The verb abominari was a term of augury for an action that rejects or averts an unfavourable omen indicated by a signum, the noun is abominatio, from which English abomination derives. At the taking of formally solicited auspices, the observer was required to acknowledge any potentially bad sign occurring within the templum he was observing, regardless of the interpretation. He might, however, take actions in order to ignore the signa, including avoiding the sight of them. The latter tactic required promptness, wit and skill based on discipline, thus the omen had no validity apart from the observation of it. The aedes was the place of a god. It was thus a structure that housed the image, distinguished from the templum or sacred district. Aedes is one of several Latin words that can be translated as shrine or temple, for instance, the Temple of Vesta, as it is called in English, was in Latin an aedes. See also the diminutive aedicula, a small shrine, in his work On Architecture, Vitruvius always uses the word templum in the technical sense of a space defined through augury, with aedes the usual word for the building itself. The design of an aedes, he writes, should be appropriate to the characteristics of the deity. Thus in theory, though not always in practice, architectural aesthetics had a theological dimension, the word aedilis, a public official, is related by etymology, among the duties of the aediles was the overseeing of public works, including the building and maintenance of temples. The temple of Flora, for instance, was built in 241 BC by two aediles acting on Sibylline oracles, the plebeian aediles had their headquarters at the aedes of Ceres. In religious usage, ager was terrestrial space defined for the purposes of augury in relation to auspicia, there were five kinds of ager, Romanus, Gabinus, peregrinus, hosticus and incertus. The ager Romanus originally included the space outside the pomerium. According to Varro, the ager Gabinus pertained to the circumstances of the oppidum of Gabii
Templum
–
Marcus Aurelius (
head covered) sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Templum
–
Ruins of the
aedes of Vesta
Templum
–
Altar (ara) from
Roman Spain
Templum
–
Augustus, capite velato
11.
Etruscan civilization
–
The Etruscan civilization is the modern name given to a powerful and wealthy civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio. Culture that is identifiably Etruscan developed in Italy after about 800 BC, the latter gave way in the 7th century BC to a culture that was influenced by ancient Greece, Magna Graecia, and Phoenicia. The decline was gradual, but by 500 BC the political destiny of Italy had passed out of Etruscan hands, the last Etruscan cities were formally absorbed by Rome around 100 BC. Politics were based on the city, and probably the family unit. In their heyday, the Etruscan elite grew very rich through trade with the Celtic world to the north and the Greeks to the south, archaic Greece had a huge influence on their art and architecture, and Greek mythology was evidently very familiar to them. The study also excluded recent Anatolian connection, the ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the Tuscī or Etruscī. Their Roman name is the origin of the terms Tuscany, which refers to their heartland, and Etruria, which can refer to their wider region. In Attic Greek, the Etruscans were known as Tyrrhenians, from which the Romans derived the names Tyrrhēnī, Tyrrhēnia, the word may also be related to the Hittite Taruisa. The Etruscans called themselves Rasenna, which was syncopated to Rasna or Raśna, the origins of the Etruscans are mostly lost in prehistory, although Greek historians as early as the 5th century BC, repeatedly associated the Tyrrhenians with Pelasgians. Strabo as well as the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus make mention of the Tyrrhenians as pirates, pliny the Elder put the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north and wrote in his Natural History, Adjoining these the Noricans are the Raeti and Vindelici. All are divided into a number of states, the Raeti are believed to be people of Tuscan race driven out by the Gauls, their leader was named Raetus. Historians have no literature and no original Etruscan texts of religion or philosophy, therefore, much of what is known about this civilization is derived from grave goods, another source of genetic data on Etruscan origins is from four ancient breeds of cattle. Analyzing the mitochondrial DNA of these and seven other breeds of Italian cattle, the other Italian breeds were linked to northern Europe. Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the Apennine Mountains and into Campania, some small towns in the sixth century BC disappeared during this time, ostensibly consumed by greater, more powerful neighbours. However, it is certain that the structure of the Etruscan culture was similar to, albeit more aristocratic than. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean Sea. Here, their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the sixth century BC and this led the Etruscans to ally themselves with Carthage, whose interests also collided with the Greeks. Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean, from the first half of the 5th century BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces
Etruscan civilization
–
Etruscan pendant with
swastika symbols,
Bolsena,
Italy, 700-650 BC.
Louvre Museum
Etruscan civilization
–
Extent of Etruscan civilization and the twelve Etruscan League cities.
Etruscan civilization
–
Etruscan riders, Silver panel 540-520BC, Castel San Marino, near
Perugia
Etruscan civilization
–
Etruscan walled town,
Civita di Bagnoregio.
12.
Pitch (music)
–
Pitch can be determined only in sounds that have a frequency that is clear and stable enough to distinguish from noise. Pitch is a major attribute of musical tones, along with duration, loudness. Pitch may be quantified as a frequency, but pitch is not a purely objective physical property, Pitch is an auditory sensation in which a listener assigns musical tones to relative positions on a musical scale based primarily on their perception of the frequency of vibration. Pitch is closely related to frequency, but the two are not equivalent, frequency is an objective, scientific attribute that can be measured. Pitch is each persons subjective perception of a wave, which cannot be directly measured. However, this not necessarily mean that most people wont agree on which notes are higher and lower. Sound waves themselves do not have pitch, but their oscillations can be measured to obtain a frequency and it takes a sentient mind to map the internal quality of pitch. However, pitches are usually associated with, and thus quantified as frequencies in cycles per second, or hertz, by comparing sounds with pure tones, Complex and aperiodic sound waves can often be assigned a pitch by this method. According to the American National Standards Institute, pitch is the attribute of sound according to which sounds can be ordered on a scale from low to high. That is, high pitch means very rapid oscillation, and low pitch corresponds to slower oscillation, despite that, the idiom relating vertical height to sound pitch is shared by most languages. At least in English, it is just one of many deep conceptual metaphors that involve up/down, the exact etymological history of the musical sense of high and low pitch is still unclear. There is evidence that humans do actually perceive that the source of a sound is slightly higher or lower in vertical space when the frequency is increased or reduced. The pitch of tones can be ambiguous, meaning that two or more different pitches can be perceived, depending upon the observer. In a situation like this, the percept at 200 Hz is commonly referred to as the missing fundamental, Pitch depends to a lesser degree on the sound pressure level of the tone, especially at frequencies below 1,000 Hz and above 2,000 Hz. The pitch of lower tones gets lower as sound pressure increases, for instance, a tone of 200 Hz that is very loud seems one semitone lower in pitch than if it is just barely audible. Above 2,000 Hz, the pitch gets higher as the sound gets louder, theories of pitch perception try to explain how the physical sound and specific physiology of the auditory system work together to yield the experience of pitch. In general, pitch perception theories can be divided into place coding, place theory holds that the perception of pitch is determined by the place of maximum excitation on the basilar membrane. However, a purely place-based theory cannot account for the accuracy of pitch perception in the low, temporal theories offer an alternative that appeals to the temporal structure of action potentials, mostly the phase-locking and mode-locking of action potentials to frequencies in a stimulus
Pitch (music)
–
In musical notation, the different vertical positions of notes indicate different pitches. Play top (
help ·
info) & Play bottom (
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13.
Brass instrument
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A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the players lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones, literally meaning lip-vibrated instruments, there are several factors involved in producing different pitches on a brass instrument. The view of most scholars is that the brass instrument should be defined by the way the sound is made, as above. Thus one finds brass instruments made of wood, like the alphorn, the cornett, the serpent, as valved instruments are predominant among the brasses today, a more thorough discussion of their workings can be found below. The valves are usually piston valves, but can be rotary valves, slide brass instruments use a slide to change the length of tubing. The main instruments in this category are the family, though valve trombones are occasionally used. The trombone familys ancestor, the sackbut, and the folk instrument bazooka are also in the slide family, there are two other families that have, in general, become functionally obsolete for practical purposes. Instruments of both types, however, are used for period-instrument performances of Baroque or Classical pieces. In more modern compositions, they are used for their intonation or tone color. Natural brass instruments only play notes in the harmonic series. These include the bugle and older variants of the trumpet and horn, the trumpet was a natural brass instrument prior to about 1795, and the horn before about 1820. In the 18th century, makers developed interchangeable crooks of different lengths, natural instruments are still played for period performances and some ceremonial functions, and are occasionally found in more modern scores, such as those by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Keyed or Fingered brass instruments used holes along the body of the instrument and these included the cornett, serpent, ophicleide, keyed bugle and keyed trumpet. They are more difficult to play than valved instruments, Brass instruments may also be characterised by two generalizations about geometry of the bore, that is, the tubing between the mouthpiece and the flaring of the tubing into the bell. Those two generalizations are with regard to the degree of taper or conicity of the bore and the diameter of the bore with respect to its length, cylindrical bore brass instruments are generally perceived as having a brighter, more penetrating tone quality compared to conical bore brass instruments. The trumpet, baritone horn and all trombones are cylindrical bore, in particular, the slide design of the trombone necessitates this. Conical bore brass instruments are those in which tubing of constantly increasing diameter predominates, conical bore instruments are generally perceived as having a more mellow tone quality than the cylindrical bore brass instruments. The British brass band group of instruments fall into this category and this includes the flugelhorn, cornet, tenor horn, horn, euphonium and tuba
Brass instrument
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A
trumpet, foreground, a
piccolo trumpet behind, and a
flugelhorn in background
14.
Carnyx
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The carnyx was a wind instrument of the Iron Age Celts, used between c.200 BC and c. The bell was styled in the shape of an open-mouthed boars, or other animals and it was used in warfare, probably to incite troops to battle and intimidate opponents, as Polybius recounts. The instruments significant height allowed it to be heard over the heads of the participants in battles or ceremonies, the word “carnyx” is derived from the Gaulish root, carn- or cern- meaning antler or horn, and the same root of the name of the god, Cernunnos. In September 2004, over 500 fragments of iron and bronze objects were discovered in a Gallic pit. Four of the carnyces had boars heads, the fifth appears to be a serpent-like monster, the Tintignac finds enabled some fragments found in northern Italy decades before to be identified in 2012 as coming from a carnyx. The only example from the British Isles is the Deskford Carnyx, found at the farm of Leitchestown, Deskford, Banffshire, only the boars head bell survives, also apparently placed as a ritual deposit. It was donated to Banff Museum, and is now on loan from Aberdeenshire Museums Service to the Museum of Scotland, the location and age of the Deskford Carnyx suggests the instrument had a peaceful, ceremonial use and was not only used in warfare. Before 2004 this was the best surviving example, and generally copied in earlier reconstructions and it should be noted, however, that the Deskford find was made almost entirely of brass, a metal used almost exclusively by the Romans, and strictly controlled by them. Further, the size and shape of the Deskford find suggests it may in fact have been a Roman military draco standard. The instrument is known from depictions on coins and reliefs, notably from Trajans Column and the so-called initiation scene of the Gundestrup cauldron. The name is known from sources, carnyces are reported from the Celtic attack on the Delphi in 279 BC, as well as from Julius Caesars campaign in Gaul. The reconstruction of the Deskford Carnyx was initiated by Dr. John Purser, and commenced in 1991 funded jointly by the Glenfiddich Living Scotland award, in addition to John Purser as musicologist, the team comprised the archaeologist Fraser Hunter, silversmith John Creed, and trombonist John Kenny. After 2,000 years of silence the reconstructed Deskford Carnyx was unveiled at the National Museum of Scotland in April 1993, there are numerous compositions for the carnyx and it is featured on 7 CDs. On March 15,2003 he performed solo to an audience of 65,000 in the Stade De France, the carnyx is featured in the opening battle scene of Gladiator Gladiator, and is used as both a musical instrument and a fear-inducing weapon. It appears in battle scenes of the French film, Druids. A carnyx appears near the beginning of the 2012 Pixar computer animated movie Brave, dord, another type of Celtic trumpet which has been revived Delmarre, Xavier Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise Paris, Editions Errance. ISBN 2-87772-237-6 Hunter, Fraser, The Shamrock Traditional Irish Music Society, reprint of piece by Hunter on the carnyx Ancient Celtic music in the Citizendium Carnyx, Tintignac discoveries Carnyx on a gold stater of Caesar and on a silver denarius, both from 48 BC
Carnyx
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Carnyx from the recently discovered
Tintignac group
Carnyx
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Three carnyx players are depicted at right on plate E of the
Gundestrup cauldron.
15.
Lur
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Cape Lisburne LRRS Airport is a military airport located on Cape Lisburne, at the northwest point of the Lisburne Peninsula in the North Slope Borough of the U. S. state of Alaska. The airport is owned by the U. S. Air Force and it is also known as Cape Lisburne Airport. It is located within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Alaska, the nearest community is Point Hope, located 25 miles to the southwest. Cape Lisburne Airport is a United States Air Force military airstrip and its mission is to provide access to the Cape Lisburne Long Range Radar Station for servicing and other requirements. The airstrip was conducted in 1952 during the construction of the Cape Lisburne Air Force Station, during the stations operational use as a manned radar station, it provided transportation for station personnel and for supplies and equipment to be airlifted to the station. With the manned radar stations closure in 1983, the airstrip now provides access to the site for maintenance personnel. It is not staffed by any personnel, and is not open to the public. During the winter months, it may be due to the extreme weather conditions at the location. Cape Lisburne LRRS Airport has one runway designated 8/26 with a surface measuring 4,805 by 135 feet. For the 12-month period ending July 12,1977, the airport had 200 general aviation aircraft operations, an average of 16 per month
Lur
16.
Roman tuba
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The tuba of ancient Rome is a military signal trumpet, quite different from the modern tuba. The tuba was produced around 500 BC and its shape was straight, in contrast to the military buccina or cornu, which was more like the modern sousaphone in curving around the body. Its origin is thought to be Etruscan, and it is similar to the Greek salpinx, about four feet in length, it was made usually of bronze, and was played with a detachable mouthpiece. Tuba is one of the most important music instruments in the military and it can be used for parades and funerals, but the most important way to use it is to give orders to soldiers. The main purpose of this instrument is to amplify the voice, people who play this instrument are called tubicines. In representations of playing this instrument, they are usually pointing it up or down. They also just use one hand to hold it, as the hand is placed on the hip to help dilate the torso. 1. Daniel A.2. John Ziolkowski, The Roman Bucina,1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, mirrored at Online Encyclopedia. Image of tuba on Trajans Column
Roman tuba
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Roman tuba
17.
Buccina
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Bučina is the name of several locations in the Czech Republic. A buccina or bucina, anglicized buccin or bucine, is an instrument that was used in the ancient Roman army. An aeneator who blew a buccina was called a buccinator or bucinator and it was originally designed as a tube measuring some 3.4 to 3.7 meters in length, of narrow cylindrical bore, and played by means of a cup-shaped mouthpiece. The buccina was used for the announcement of night watches, to soldiers by means of the special signal known as classicum. The instrument is the ancestor of both the trumpet and the trombone, the German word for trombone, Posaune, is derived from Buccina. The buccin was revived during the French Revolution, along with the tuba curva, both instruments were first used in the music that François Joseph Gossec composed for the translation of the remains of Voltaire to the Pantheon on 11 July 1791. He also calls for three in the movement of his Feste Romane, but again notes that they may be replaced by trumpets. Buccina in Smiths Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities
Buccina
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Buccina
18.
Crusades
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The First Crusade arose after a call to arms in a 1095 sermon by Pope Urban II. Urban urged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, the response to Urbans preaching by people of many different classes across Western Europe established the precedent for later Crusades. Volunteers became Crusaders by taking a vow and receiving plenary indulgences from the church. Some were hoping for apotheosis at Jerusalem, or forgiveness from God for all their sins, others participated to satisfy feudal obligations, gain glory and honour, or find opportunities for economic and political gain. Many modern Historians have polarised opinions of the Crusaders behaviour under Papal sanction, to some it was incongruous with the stated aims and implied moral authority of the papacy and the Crusades, to the extent that on occasions that the Pope excommunicated Crusaders. Crusaders often pillaged as they travelled, while their leaders retained control of captured territory rather than returning it to the Byzantines. During the Peoples Crusade thousands of Jews were murdered in what is now called the Rhineland massacres, Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade rendering the reunification of Christendom impossible. These tales consequently galvanised medieval romance, philosophy and literature, but the Crusades also reinforced the connection between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism. Crusade is not a term, instead the terms iter for journey or peregrinatio for pilgrimage were used. Not until the word crucesignatus for one who was signed with the cross was adopted at the close of the century was specific terminology developed. The Middle English equivalents were derived from old French, croiserie in the 13th–15th centuries, croisade appeared in English c1575, and continued to be the leading form till c1760. By convention historians adopt the term for the Christian holy wars from 1095, the Crusades in the Holy Land are traditionally counted as nine distinct campaigns, numbered from the First Crusade of 1095–99 to the Ninth Crusade of 1271/2. Usage of the term Crusade may differ depending on the author, pluralists use the term Crusade of any campaign explicitly sanctioned by the reigning Pope. This reflects the view of the Roman Catholic Church that every military campaign given Papal sanction is equally valid as a Crusade, regardless of its cause, justification, generalists see Crusades as any and all holy wars connected with the Latin Church and fought in defence of their faith. Popularists limit the Crusades to only those that were characterised by popular groundswells of religious fervour – that is, only the First Crusade, Medieval Muslim historiographers such as Ali ibn al-Athir refer to the Crusades as the Frankish Wars. The term used in modern Arabic, ḥamalāt ṣalībiyya حملات صليبية, campaigns of the cross, is a loan translation of the term Crusade as used in Western historiography. The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, the resulting unified polity in the seventh and eighth centuries led to a rapid expansion of Arab power. This influence stretched from the northwest Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, tolerance, trade, and political relationships between the Arabs and the Christian states of Europe waxed and waned
Crusades
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Madrid Skylitzes illuminated manuscript depicting Byzantine Greeks punishing ninth-century
Cretan Saracens
Crusades
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Map of the
Eastern Mediterranean in 1135, showing crusader-held and neighbouring territories
Crusades
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Fifteenth-century illustrated French translation of
Boccaccio 's
De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, showing
Seljuk emperor
Alp Arslan ritually humiliating
Romanos IV in 1071 after Manzikert; Alp Arslan allowed Romanos to return to
Constantinople, where he was killed by the Byzantines.
Crusades
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Illumination from the Livre des Passages d'Outre-mer (c. 1490) of Urban II at the Council of Clermont (from the
Bibliothèque Nationale)
19.
Cornu (horn)
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A cornu or cornum was an ancient Roman brass instrument about 3 m long in the shape of a letter G. The instrument was braced by a crossbar that stiffened the structure, some specimens survive in the archaeological record, two from the ruins of Pompeii. The cornu may be difficult to distinguish from the buccina and it was used by the Roman army for communicating orders to troops in battle. In Roman art, the cornu appears among the instruments that accompany games or gladiator combat in the arena, the cornu was carried by the cornicen who coded the generals orders into signals and broadcast them over the field during battles. The Roman army also made use of a trumpet called a tuba. The military writer Vegetius described the use of horns to give signals, The music of the consists of trumpets, cornets. The trumpet sounds the charge and the retreat, the ordinary guards and outposts are always mounted and relieved by the sound of trumpet, which also directs the motions of the soldiers on working parties and on field days. The cornets sound whenever the colors are to be struck or planted, for reason will convince us that what is necessary to be performed in the heat of action should constantly be practiced in the leisure of peace. The cornu was revived as the tuba curva during the French Revolution, both were first used in music that François Joseph Gossec composed for the translation of the remains of Voltaire to the Pantheon, on 11 July 1791. Music of ancient Rome Sousaphone William Smith, D. C. L, a Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London,1875
Cornu (horn)
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Cornu and water pipe organ (
hydraulis) on a mosaic from
Nennig, Germany
Cornu (horn)
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Historical reenactor as a cornicen
Cornu (horn)
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Cornu from the Roman Museum in
Aalen, Germany
Cornu (horn)
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Cornicen on
Trajan's Column
20.
Jean de Gerson
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Aged fourteen, he left Gerson-lès-Barby to study at the college of Navarre in Paris under Gilles Deschamps, and Pierre dAilly, who became his life-long friend. Gerson was born at Gerson-lès-Barby, Gerson a hamlet in the present municipality of Barby, young Gerson was sent to Paris to the famous college of Navarre when fourteen years of age. Pierre dAilly remained his friend, and in later life the pupil seems to have become the teacher. Gerson very soon attracted the notice of the university and he was elected procurator for the French nation in 1383, and again in 1384, in which year he graduated bachelor of theology. Three years later a higher honour was bestowed upon him, he was sent along with the chancellor. Gersons biographers have compared his journey to Avignon with Luthers visit to Rome, Gersons writings bear witness to his deep sense of the responsibilities, anxieties and troubles of his position. He was all his days a man of letters, and an analysis of his writings is his best biography. His work has three periods, in which he was engaged in reforming the university studies, maturing plans for overcoming the schism, and in the evening of his life writing books of devotion. Gerson wished to banish scholastic subtleties from the studies of the university and he was called at this period of his life Doctor Christianissimus, later his devotional and pastoral writings brought him the title Doctor Consolatorius. His plan was to make theology plain and simple by founding it on the principles of nominalism. His method was an exposition of the principles of theology where clearness was possible. He thought that in this way he would guard against the folly of the old scholasticism. His plans for the reformation of university studies may be learned from his Epistolae de reform, the study of the Bible and of the fathers was to supersede the idle questions of the schools, and in his Tract. Contra romantiam de rosa he warns against the irreverent Roman de la rose of Guillaume de Lorris and he was often weary of the chancellorship—it involved him in strife and in money difficulties, he grew tired of public life, and longed for learned leisure. To obtain it he accepted the deanery of Bruges from the duke of Burgundy, Gersons 1402 treatise De Vita Spirituali Animae was one of the first attempts at developing natural rights theory. He thought that freedom could be exchanged in the way as property. Gersons chief work was toward reconciling the great schism and this caused great confusion, as the Church could, at one time, only have one legitimate successor of St. Peter— and one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one seamless garment of Christ. The schism had practically been brought about by France, hence the melancholy piety of Gerson, Pierre dAilly and their companions, and the energy with which they strove to bring the schism to an end
Jean de Gerson
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Jean Charlier de Gerson
Jean de Gerson
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Statue of Jean Gerson in Lyon
21.
String instrument
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String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when the performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the strings with their fingers or a plectrum—and others by hitting the strings with a wooden hammer or by rubbing the strings with a bow. In some keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord or piano, with bowed instruments, the player rubs the strings with a horsehair bow, causing them to vibrate. With a hurdy-gurdy, the musician operates a wheel that rubs the strings. Bowed instruments include the string instruments of the Classical music orchestra. All of the string instruments can also be plucked with the fingers. Some types of string instrument are mainly plucked, such as the harp, in the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, string instruments are called chordophones. Other examples include the sitar, rebab, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, in most string instruments, the vibrations are transmitted to the body of the instrument, which often incorporates some sort of hollow or enclosed area. The body of the instrument also vibrates, along with the air inside it, the vibration of the body of the instrument and the enclosed hollow or chamber make the vibration of the string more audible to the performer and audience. The body of most string instruments is hollow, some, however—such as electric guitar and other instruments that rely on electronic amplification—may have a solid wood body. Archaeological digs have identified some of the earliest stringed instruments in Ancient Mesopotamian sites, like the lyres of Ur, the development of lyre instruments required the technology to create a tuning mechanism to tighten and loosen the string tension. During the medieval era, instrument development varied from country to country, Middle Eastern rebecs represented breakthroughs in terms of shape and strings, with a half a pear shape using three strings. Early versions of the violin and fiddle, by comparison, emerged in Europe through instruments such as the gittern, a four stringed precursor to the guitar and these instruments typically used catgut and other materials, including silk, for their strings. String instrument design refined during the Renaissance and into the Baroque period of musical history, violins and guitars became more consistent in design, and were roughly similar to what we use in the 2000s. At the same time, the 19th century guitar became more associated with six string models. In big bands of the 1920s, the guitar played backing chords. The development of guitar amplifiers, which contained a power amplifier, the development of the electric guitar provided guitarists with an instrument that was built to connect to guitar amplifiers. Electric guitars have magnetic pickups, volume control knobs and an output jack, in the 1960s, larger, more powerful guitar amplifiers were developed, called stacks
String instrument
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Various stringed instruments of Chinese make on display in a shop.
String instrument
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Viol, fidel and rebec (from left to right) on display at Amakusa Korejiyokan in Amakusa, Kumamoto, Japan
String instrument
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Various string instruments on display at the
Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City.
String instrument
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The strings of a
piano
22.
Harp
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The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard, which are plucked with the fingers. Harps have been known since antiquity in Asia, Africa and Europe, Harps vary globally in many ways. In terms of size, many smaller harps can be played on the lap, whereas larger harps are quite heavy, different harps may use strings of catgut or nylon, or of metal, or some combination. While all harps have a neck, resonator, and strings, frame harps have a pillar at their end to support the strings, while open harps, such as arch or bow harps. Modern harps also vary in techniques used to extend the range and chromaticity of the strings, the earliest harps and lyres were found in Sumer,3500 BC, and several harps were found in burial pits and royal tombs in Ur. The oldest depictions of harps without a forepillar can be adjacent to the Near East, in the wall paintings of ancient Egyptian tombs in the Nile Valley. These murals show an instrument that resembles the hunters bow. The chang flourished in Persia in many forms from its introduction, about 3000 BC, around 1900 BC arched harps in the Iraq–Iran region were replaced by angular harps with vertical or horizontal sound boxes. By the start of the Common Era, robust, vertical, angular harps, in the last century of the Sasanian period, angular harps were redesigned to make them as light as possible, while they became more elegant, they lost their structural rigidity. At the height of the Persian tradition of illustrated book production, such light harps were still frequently depicted, the works of the Tamil Sangam literature describe the harp and its variants, as early as 200 BC. Variants were described ranging from 14 to 17 strings, and the instrument used by wandering minstrels for accompaniment, another early South Asian harp was the ancient veena, unlike the modern instrument of the same name, the ancient veena was a harp vice the modern lute-type instrument. Some Samudragupta gold coins show of the mid-4th century AD show the king Samudragupta himself playing the instrument, the ancient veena survives today in Burma, in the form of the saung harp still played there. The harp was popular in ancient China and neighboring regions, though harps are largely extinct in East Asia in the modern day, the Chinese konghou harp is documented as early as the Spring and Autumn period, and became extinct during the Ming Dynasty. A similar harp, the gonghu was played in ancient Korea, Harps are essentially triangular in shape, and are made primarily of wood. Harp strings are made of gut or metal, the top end of each string is secured on the crossbar or neck of the instrument, where each will have a tuning peg or similar device to adjust the pitch of that string. It is the distance between the tuning peg and the soundboard, as well as the tension and weight of the string, the body is hollow and when a taut string is plucked, the body resonates, projecting sound. The longest side of the harp is called the column or pillar, though some earlier harps, such as a bow harp, on most harps, the sole purpose of the pillar is to hold up the neck against the great strain of the strings. On harps which have pedals, the pillar is a column and encloses the rods which adjust the pitch of strings
Harp
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(modern pedal harp)
Harp
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A medieval harp (left) and a single-action pedal harp (right)
Harp
–
Ur lyre
Harp
–
1A
Sassanid era mosaic excavated at
Bishapur
23.
Gittern
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The gittern was a relatively small gut strung round-backed instrument that first appears in literature and pictorial representation during the 13th century in Western Europe. It is usually depicted played with a plectrum, as we can see clearly beginning in manuscript illuminations from the thirteenth century. It was also called the guitarra in Spain, guiterne or guiterre in France, a popular instrument with court musicians, minstrels, and amateurs, the gittern is considered ancestral to the modern guitar, possibly other instruments like the mandore and gallichon. From the early 16th century, a vihuela shaped guitarra began to appear in Spain - then France, although the round-backed instrument appears to have lost ground to the new form which gradually developed into the guitar familiar today, the influence of the earlier style continued. Examples of lutes converted into guitars exist in museums, while purpose built instruments like the gallichon utilised the tuning. A tradition of building round-backed guitars in Germany continued to the 20th century with names like gittar-laute and Wandervogellaute, up until 2002, there were only two known surviving medieval gitterns, one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the other in the Wartburg Castle Museum. A third was discovered in an outhouse in Elbląg, Poland. The back, neck and pegbox were probably usually carved from one piece of timber, occurring less rarely later in the 15th century, the back was built up from a number of thin tapered ribs joined at the edges, as was characteristic of the lute. Unlike the sharp corner joining the body to the neck seen in the lute, the sickle, or occasional gentle arc pegbox, made an angle with the neck of between 30-90 degrees. Unlike the lute, most pegboxes on gitterns ended in a carving of a human or animal head, most gitterns were depicted as having three or four courses of double strings. There are also references to some five course gitterns in the 16th century, although there is not much direct information concerning gittern tuning, the later versions were quite possibly tuned in fourths and fifths like the mandore a few decades later. Frets were represented in a few depictions, although absent in most French. The gitterns sound hole was covered with a rosette, similar to the lute, the construction resembles other bowed and plucked instruments, including the rebec, Calabrian and Byzantine lyra, gǎdulka, lijerica, klasic kemençe, gudok and cobza. These have similar shapes, a neck, and like the gittern are carved out of a single block of wood. Some have pointed out there have been errors in scholarship which led to the gittern being called mandore and vice versa. As a result of uncertainty, many modern sources refer to gitterns as mandoras. The various regional names used appear derived over time from a Greco-Roman origin, although when, the gittern had faded so completely from memory in England that identifying the instrument proved problematic for 20th century early music scholarship. It was assumed the ancestry of the guitar was only to be discovered through the study of flat-backed instruments
Gittern
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Five course Gittern or "Quintern" dated 1450, built by luthier Hans Oth.
Gittern
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Gittern (right) depicted in a c. 1322 fresco scene from the life of
St. Martin of Tours. The instrument on the left is a set of
aulos.
Gittern
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Section from
Sebastian Virdung 's 1511 book, Musica getuscht und angezogen.
Gittern
–
Juan Oliver's c.1330 painting at
Pamplona Cathedral, showing a musician playing a gittern.
24.
Crumhorn
–
The crumhorn is a musical instrument of the woodwind family, most commonly used during the Renaissance period. In modern times, there has been a revival of interest in early music, the name derives from the German Krumhorn meaning bent horn. This relates to the old English crump meaning curve, surviving in modern English in crumpled and it is uncertain if the Spanish wind instrument orlo designates the crumhorn, but it is known that crumhorns were used in Spain in the sixteenth century, and the identification seems likely. The crumhorn is a reed instrument. Its construction is similar to that of the chanter of a bagpipe, a double reed is mounted inside a long windcap. Blowing through a slot in the windcap produces a musical note, the pitch of the note can be varied by opening or closing finger holes along the length of the pipe. One unusual feature of the crumhorn is its shape, the end is bent upwards in a curve resembling the letter J, the curve is decorative only and does not influence the sound. Crumhorns make a buzzing sound, but quieter than their conical-bore relatives the rauschpfeife. They have a range, usually a ninth. Some modern instruments have their range extended upwards to an eleventh by two keys, Crumhorns can be chromatically played by using cross-fingerings, except for the minor second above the lowest note. Because of the range, music for crumhorns is usually played by a group of instruments of different sizes. Such a group is known as a consort of crumhorns, Crumhorns are built in imitation of the vocal quartet with soprano, alto, tenor and bass as a family, as was true of most instruments of the Renaissance. There are examples of higher- and lower-sounding instruments, of which the bass is the only commonly used one. Michael Praetorius suggested the use of crumhorns in some of his vocal works as a possible alternative to trombones, dulcians. In Ursula Dubosarskys novel Bruno and the Crumhorn, two children, Bruno and Sybil, find themselves learning to play the crumhorn almost by accident, the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. The Crumhorn and Other Renaissance Windcap Instruments, A Contribution to Renaissance Organology, buren, The Netherlands, Frits Knuf ISBN9789060274248, ISBN9789060274231. Spielanleitung für Krümmhorner, Cornamusen und Kortholte / How to Play the Crumhorn, Cornamusa, the Crumhorn, A Concise Method for the Crumhorn and Other Wind-cap Instruments. The Crumhorn, Its History, Design, Repertory, and Technique, Crumhorn Musica Antiqua Crumhorn Page Crumhorns by Moeck Renaissance Studio Mahillon, Victor-Charles, Schlesinger, Kathleen
Crumhorn
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modern crumhorns with keys, alto crumhorn in f, bass crumhorn in f
Crumhorn
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double-reed of an alto crumhorn in f
25.
Cornett
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The cornett, cornetto, or zink is an early wind instrument that dates from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, popular from 1500 to 1650. It was used in what are now called alta capellas or wind ensembles and it is not to be confused with the trumpet-like cornet. The sound of the cornett is produced by lip vibrations against a cup mouthpiece, a cornett consists of a conical wooden pipe covered in leather, is about 24 inches long, and has finger holes and a small horn or ivory mouthpiece. The ordinary treble cornett is made by splitting a length of wood, the halves are then glued together, and the outside planed to an octagonal cross section, the whole being bound in thin black leather. Six front finger holes and a hole on the back are bored in the instrument. The socket for the mouthpiece at the end is reinforced with a brass collar. The separate cup mouthpiece is made of horn, ivory, or bone, with a thin rim. Because it lacks a little-finger hole at the bottom, its lowest note is the A below middle C, at least three existing specimens of bass cornett reside in the collection of the Musée de la Musique, Paris. Historically, two cornetts were frequently used in consort with three sackbuts, often to double a church choir and this was particularly popular in Venetian churches such as the Basilica San Marco, where extensive instrumental accompaniment was encouraged, particularly in use with antiphonal choirs. Giovanni Bassano was an early player of the cornett. Heinrich Schütz also used the instrument extensively, especially in his earlier work, the serpent largely supplanted the bass cornett in the 17th century. Other versions include the mute cornett, which is a straight instrument with integrated mouthpiece. The cornett was used as a virtuoso solo instrument. The use of the instrument had declined by 1700, although the instrument was common in Europe until the late 18th century. Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and their German contemporaries used both the cornett and cornettino in cantatas to play in unison with the voices of the choir. Occasionally, these composers allocated a part to the cornetto. Alessandro Scarlatti used the cornetto or pairs of cornetts in a number of his operas, johann Joseph Fux used a pair of mute cornetts in a Requiem. It was scored for by Gluck, in his opera Orfeo ed Euridice and features in the TV theme music Testament by Nigel Hess, at every stage of its development the cornett was an instrument of professional musicians
Cornett
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Three different c: mute cornett, curved cornett and tenor cornett
Cornett
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16th and 17th century Cornetts
26.
Hadrianus Junius
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Hadrianus Junius, also known as Adriaen de Jonghe, was a Dutch physician, classical scholar, translator, lexicographer, antiquarian, historiographer, emblematist, school rector, and Latin poet. He is not to be confused with several namesakes and he was not related to Franciscus Junius. Adriaen de Jonge or Hadrianus Junius, was born in the Westfrisian town of Hoorn on 1 July 1511 and he attended the Latin School in Haarlem. At the relatively advanced age of 23, he went to study in Louvain and he then embarked on his peregrinatio academica, which led him through Siena, Bologna, Venice and Rome. He obtained his degree in philosophy and medicine in Bologna in 1540. Not long after his graduation, Junius left for Paris, a centre of printing, there he acted as an agent for the printer Christian Wechel, who published his first work, an edition with Latin translation of Cassius Iatrosophista. In Paris Junius seems to have met Edmund Bonner, bishop of London, in April 1544 he headed for London, where Thomas Howard, third duke of Norfolk, made him his physician. Howard’s son Henry, the earl of Surrey’ enlisted him as a tutor to his children. Junius spent much of his time in Norfolk, at the castle in Kenninghall. The alliance with the Howards came to an end when Thomas. Junius lost a part of his library when his patron’s belongings were confiscated. He dedicated his Lexicon to the new king, the very young Protestant Edward VI, apparently, Junius tried to secure a position at the English court, in 1550 he dedicated the manuscript of his work on calendars to Edward. In his letters, he describes the stripping of the altars as a result of the Edwardian injunctions In 1550 Junius left for Holland to marry, the job was not to his liking, and after two years he exchanged it for a post as city physician. In the meantime he had travelled to London to present his epic poem Philippeis to Mary on the occasion of her wedding to Philip of Spain in 1554. He dedicated his commentary on Horace’s Odes to Gonsalvo Perez, both of these dedicatees were loyal servants to the Spanish crowns and humanists in their own right. All his dedications to mighty Protestants and Catholics alike had remained fruitless, during the 1550s, Junius’ works appeared with various printers in Basle. Despite a fire in his study in 1554, which cost him ‘months, if not years of work’, his collection of philological annotations on classical literature appeared in 1556. He dedicated it to Granvelle and its pages repeatedly pay tribute to Granvelle’s secretary, to the Animadversa was appended a long treatise De coma commentarium, a paradoxical encomium, purportedly written in defiance of critique on the short Italian haircut which he had adopted in Italy
Hadrianus Junius
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Hadrianus Junius, by
Theodor de Bry.
27.
Shawm
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The shawm is a conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 12th century to the present day. It achieved its peak of popularity during the medieval and Renaissance periods and it is likely to have come to Western Europe from the Eastern Mediterranean around the time of the Crusades. Double reed instruments similar to the shawm were long present in Southern Europe and the East, for instance the Ancient Greek, and later Byzantine, aulos, the Persian sorna, and the Armenian duduk. The body of the shawm is usually turned from a piece of wood. Beginning in the 16th century, shawms were made in sizes, from sopranino to great bass. All later shawms have at least one key allowing an extension of the compass. The pirouette, a small wooden attachment with a cavity in the center resembling a thimble, surrounds the lower part of the reed—this provides support for the lips and embouchure. Since only a portion of the reed protrudes past the pirouette, the player has only limited contact with the reed. In English the name only first appears in the 14th century, the early plural forms were often mistaken for a singular, and new plurals were formed from them. The later reduction in the 15th and 16th centuries to a syllable in forms such as schalme, shaume, shawme. In Portugal there is an instrument called charamela, and the name of the Italian shawm is ciaramella, Instruments resembling the medieval shawm can still be heard in many countries today, played by street musicians or military bands. The latter use would have been familiar to crusaders, who often had to face massed bands of Saracen shawms and nakers and it must have had a profound effect, as the shawm was quickly adopted by Europeans, for dancing as well as for military purposes. The standard outdoor dance band in the century consisted of a slide trumpet playing popular melodies. In many Asian countries, shawm technique includes circular breathing allowing continuous playing without pauses for air, by the early 16th century, the shawm had undergone considerable development. The harsh tonality of the shawm had been modulated somewhat by a narrowing of the bore. This also extended the range, enabling the performer to play the notes in the second octave. Larger sizes of shawm were built, down to the bass in Bb, two octaves and a major third below the soprano in D. However, the larger sizes were unwieldy. The shawm became standard equipment for bands, or waits
Shawm
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Shawm
Shawm
28.
Michael Praetorius
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Michael Praetorius was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. Praetorius was born Michael Schultze, the youngest son of a Lutheran pastor, in Creuzburg, after attending school in Torgau and Zerbst, he studied divinity and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt. He was fluent in a number of languages, after receiving his musical education, from 1587 he served as organist at the Marienkirche in Frankfurt. From 1592/3 he served at the court in Wolfenbüttel, under the employ of Henry Julius and he served in the dukes State Orchestra, first as organist and later as Kapellmeister. His first compositions appeared around 1602/3 and their publication primarily reflects the care for music at the court of Gröningen. The motets of this collection were the first in Germany to make use of the new Italian performance practices, as a result and these modern pieces mark the end of his middle creative period. The nine parts of his Musae Sioniae and the 1611 published collections of music follow the German Protestant chorale style. With these, at the behest of a circle of orthodox Lutherans, he followed the Duchess Elizabeth, in place of popular music, one now expected religious music from Praetorius. When the duke died in 1613 and was succeeded by Frederick Ulrich, from 1613 he also worked at the court of John George I, Elector of Saxony at Dresden, where he was responsible for festive music. He was exposed to the latest Italian music, including the works of the Venetian School. His subsequent development of the form of the concerto, particularly the polychoral variety. The solo-voice, polychoral, and instrumental compositions Praetorius prepared for these events mark the period of his artistic creativity. Until his death, Praetorius stayed at the court in Dresden, Michael Praetorius is said to have died on his 50th birthday, in Wolfenbüttel, Germany and is entombed in a vault beneath the organ of the Marienkirche there. His family name in German appears in various forms including Schultze, Schulte, Schultheiss, Schulz, Praetorius was the conventional Latinized form of this family name, Schultze meaning mayor in German, and a Praetor was a Roman official. Praetorius was a composer, his compositions show the influence of Italian composers. He wrote many works for the Lutheran church, and Terpsichore, a compendium of more than 300 instrumental dances. Many of Praetorius choral compositions were scored for several mini-choirs situated in locations in the church for multi-phonic effect. The familiar harmonization of Es ist ein Ros entsprungen was written by Praetorius in 1609, Praetorius was the greatest musical academic of his day and the Germanic writer of music best known to other 17th-century musicians
Michael Praetorius
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Michael Praetorius
Michael Praetorius
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An illustration of several musical instruments from
Syntagma Musicum
Michael Praetorius
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Hymns
29.
Conrad Gessner
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Conrad Gessner was a Swiss naturalist and bibliographer. He was well known as a botanist, physician and classical linguist and his five-volume Historia animalium is considered the beginning of modern zoology, and the flowering plant genus Gesneria and its family Gesneriaceae are named after him. A genus of moths is also named Gesneria after him and he is denoted by the author abbreviation Gesner when citing a botanical name. Gessner was born on March 26,1516 in Zürich, Switzerland, he was the son of Ursus Gessner, Gessners father realized he was clever, and sent him to live with a great uncle, who grew and collected medicinal herbs for a living. Here the boy became familiar with many plants and their medicinal purposes which led to a lifelong interest in natural history, Gessner first attended the Carolinum in Zürich, then he entered the Fraumünster seminary. In school, he impressed his teachers so much that a few of them helped him so he could further his education at universities such as Strassburg. One even acted as a father to him after the death of his father at the Battle of Kappel. After the death of his father he left Zürich and traveled to Strasbourg, here he broadened his knowledge of ancient languages by studying Hebrew at the Strasbourg Academy. In 1535, religious unrest drove him back to Zürich, where he made an imprudent marriage and his friends again came to his aid and enabled him to study at Basel. Throughout his life Gessner was interested in history, and collected specimens and descriptions of wildlife through travel and extensive correspondence with other friends. His approach to research consisted of four components, observation, dissection, travel to distant lands. This rising observational approach was new to Renaissance scholars because people usually relied completely upon Classical writers for their research and he died of the plague, the year after his ennoblement on December 13,1565. In 1537 his sponsors obtained for him the professorship of Greek at the newly founded academy of Lausanne, here he had leisure to devote himself to scientific studies, especially botany. After three years of teaching, Gessner was able to travel to the medical university of Montpellier. He then settled down to practice medicine in Zürich, where he obtained the post of lecturer of Aristotelean physics at the Carolinum, the precursor of the University of Zürich. After 1554 he became the city physician and it is there, apart from a few journeys to foreign countries and he devoted himself to preparing works on many subjects of different sorts. Gesners great zoological work, Historiae animalium, is a 4, a fifth folio on snakes was issued in 1587. A German translation of the first 4 volumes titled Thierbuch was published in Zürich in 1563 and this book was considered to be the first modern zoological work
Conrad Gessner
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Portrait by
Tobias Stimmer, c. 1564
Conrad Gessner
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Conrad Gessner memorial at the
Old Botanical Garden, Zürich
Conrad Gessner
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Porcupine, from the first volume of Historiae animalium, 1551
Conrad Gessner
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Fragaria vesca in Historia plantarum
30.
Alphorn
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Similar wooden horns were used for communication in most mountainous regions of Europe, from the Alps to the Carpathians. Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner used the words lituum alpinum for the first known detailed description of the alphorn in his De raris et admirandis herbis in 1555, surviving artifacts, dating back to as far as ca. AD1400, include wooden labrophones in their form, like the alphorn, or coiled versions, such as the Büchel. The alphorn is carved from solid softwood, generally spruce but sometimes pine, in former times the alphorn maker would find a tree bent at the base in the shape of an alphorn, but modern makers piece the wood together at the base. A cup-shaped mouthpiece carved out of a block of wood is added. An alphorn made at Rigi-Kulm, Schwyz, and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Swiss alphorn varies in shape according to the locality, being curved near the bell in the Bernese Oberland. Michael Praetorius mentions an instrument under the name of Hölzern Trummet in Syntagma Musicum. The alphorn has no lateral openings and therefore gives the natural harmonic series of the open pipe. The notes of the harmonic series overlap, but do not exactly correspond. Most prominently within the range, the 7th and 11th harmonics are particularly noticeable. Accomplished alphornists often command a range of three octaves, consisting of the 2nd through the 16th notes of the harmonic series. The availability of the tones is due in part to the relatively small diameter of the bore of the mouthpiece. The well-known Ranz des Vaches is a traditional Swiss melody often heard on the alphorn, the song describes the time of bringing the cows to the high country at cheese making time
Alphorn
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Grindelwald Swiss alphorn players
Alphorn
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Eliana Burki playing the alphorn at the Bardentreffen festival in
Nuremberg 2009.
Alphorn
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A Swiss playing alphorn
Alphorn
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D' Dieß'ner alphorn players.
"Lituus". Encyclopædia Britannica. 16 (11th ed.). 1911.
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